Abstract

Leucaena leucocephala is a leguminous tree that contains high level of nutrition and drought-tolerant.
Therefore, it is widely used as animal feed. However, Leucaena leucocephala also contains the
antinutritional factor mimosine, thus limiting its usage as feed. This study aims to investigate the effect of
combining detoxificated Leucaena leucocephala leaf meal (DLLLM) with pregnant rat diet to the
prenatal development of their embryos. Twenty four pregnant Wistar rats were grouped into four
experimental groups based on DLLLM level in their diet: 0% DLLLM (P0), 7,5% DLLLM (P1), 15%
DLLLM (P2) and 22,5% DLLLM (P3). The experimental diet was given starting from post coitus (day 0)
until 18th day of pregnancy. At the 18th day of pregnancy, caesarotomy was done to all samples from all
groups to remove their fetuses.
The result of this experiment showed that there was no significant difference between the control and
experimental groups regarding the number of implantation, the number of reabsorbed embryos, the
number of live fetuses, fetal weight, and fetal length (P>0.05). There is no morphological deformity found
in either control or experimental groups. It is concluded that the addition of up to 22.5% DLLLM into the
diet of pregnant rats diet does not inhibit the prenatal development of fetuses.
Keywords: Leucaena, Detoxification, Prenatal development of fetus, Rats.